By Warren Elijah E. Valdez
MAYOR Sara Duterte called out the national agencies for lack of cooperation regarding the city government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
In her statement released on the official Facebook page of the city on Thursday, Duterte said the local government “has started implementing actions against Covid-19 as early as February 10, 2020, with the release of its very first guideline.”
However, they have “to deal with government offices and private institutions that, for reasons that are beyond me, try to defy the very same controls that we have made to protect the city and the entire Davao Region.”
The chief executive did not mention the national government agencies asking for special favors.
“We have crafted rules, guidelines, and orders supposedly to protect the general public welfare and despite this, some government offices seem not to care about the effort that the entire city and the region have been doing to help the nation,” she said.
“These offices seem to care more for batches of 2, 4, 7, even 30 individuals against the 4.8 million population of Filipinos in the region,” she added, noting that “this is an unfortunate case of a government working against others in government.”
She then requested the national government agencies to stop asking her to defy the rules that are enforced in the city. Everyone is a possible carrier of the virus, so there is a need for “almost all individuals to stop moving” around the city.
“[A]nd we simply cannot do this if are asked to defy rules. Please allow me to do what our doctors and even the World Health Organization recommend for the country to do,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Mayor Duterte also warned public hospitals to follow the rules set in Executive Order No.20-A.
“Do not provide special treatment for a few individuals against the safety of the entire staff and personnel of your hospital. We have labored on the protocols with the DOH. If our own hospitals do not follow protocols, we should not have any at all,” she said.
The mayor noted that there are millions of residents in the Davao region, and government workers sacrificing their personal lives and businesses. “I call on everyone — let us not make the efforts of many, futile – just to accommodate the few,” Duterte said.
